Aug 24
Since its the very beginning of fall here in Anchorage and the summer's been rather cold and rainy (meaning there's little left in bloom), we decided to see if our honey was ready for harvest. On Sunday, Zach pulled some frames and I tried to cut the areas of capped honey off. For the most part, all went as we expected (other than we didn't have a lot of honey). You can see the darker comb to the left of where I'm cutting, that's dried out comb the bees built up and some parts are filled with bee pollen, which amazing enough seems stickier than honey. Once we finish the harvesting, I'll post a picture of the honey in a jar. I expect that we'll only get a couple of jars this year. Oh well, at least (a) the bees survived and (b) there was some honey.
Aug 18
While in Juneau last week, I went gold panning for the first time. It takes lots of patience, but you couldn't beat the scenery or the weather.
Aug 1
I decided to make a cake yesterday. It called for softened butter, but all we had were sticks of butter straight from the fridge. Without a microwave, I needed a way to soften the butter. I took a gratin dish, filled it half way with hot water from the tap and put the sticks of butter in for about 20 seconds on each side. And viola, softened butter. All the other techniques have yielded melted butter, not softened.
Jul 5
For our first anniversary on July 4th, Zach and I were in McCarthy and Kennecott and I thought my gift to him should be something associated with that experience. So, I got us a guided glacier tour where we got to spend 4-5 hours on the glacier. While Zach and I have seen many glaciers we've never been able to get on them and explore. It was a great experience and the first time in crampons for both of us. Certainly an anniversary to remember.
Jun 21
Update: I put together another pair of pants on Sunday and these turned out much better. So much so, I may just keep the first pair and call them a prototype. Perhaps give them to my sister's kid later in life for a doll.
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Jun 18
Today I took Zach's old Raleigh road bike and turned it into a single speed. Zach helped, of course, but I learned a lot more about how bikes work. The first picture is of the refinished bike. The others are in-progress pics.
Jun 5
Personally, I had never heard the term spatchcock until tonight, let alone would have known that it's an 18th century term from Ireland that means to butterfly. I did, however, read about someone who cut the time of grilling a whole chicken in half by laying it flat. When I consulted our bbq cookbook, I learned about spatchcock.
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May 23
I've never had the occasion to make a marbled cake, so I gave it a try this weekend when I found a recipe that used booze, the theme of our latest gourmet night. The result was a rum scented marble cake. I filled the center of the cake with fresh blackberries and raspberries and then made some rum vanilla whipped cream to top it all off. The cake was a hit and turned out well. I was so relieved as I wasn't sure it had marbled and I wasn't able to find out until cutting it in front of all my foodie friends.
May 18
Zach got this pretty tie from Target a couple of weeks ago and it seemed more to me that the tie was really made to be worn by a woman. Today I sported it with a blue shirt, grey pants, grey cardigan and a pair of my new earrings. Oh yeah, if you're going to wear a tie, you also have to learn to tie one. Yep, that's right, I tied that tie and I'm never untying it, ever.
Apr 26
We got our bees today, 5lbs. of them. Installation into the hive went well with only a single bee sting. Zach was the bravest of all and dumped the bees into the hive. I helped and tried to get used to having the bees on me.
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